Transportation Options Transit

From 3arf

Public transportation suffers from the nomenclature of low self-esteeem. The minute you throw the word "public" at the beginning of a phrase, you get a feeling that you're using the cheapest, dirtiest option you have available. If you don't believe me, ask yourself how often you'd prefer to use the public restroom over any private option available to you.

But the whole issue is one of perception. Are there cases where you would willingly shove yourself into a cramped space with complete strangers in order to complete one of the half-dozen trips you make everyday? Of course you would - you do it everytime you enter an elevator. Even penthouse residents and top-floor CEOs are willing to put themselves at the mercy of a five-by-five box crowded with the poor huddled masses. Why will they do this but avoid the bus? Because it's the fastest, most convenient way to get where they want to be. If they truly wanted the autonomy, the flexibility and the personal space, they would take the stairs. But at the end of the day, no matter how rich you are, how much you detest crowding and how much you would like to have some quiet time to yourself, you'll take the elevator over the stairs 99 times out of 100. The 100th time will occur during your office's annual fire drill.

For public transportation to be a viable alternative, it has to meet the same criteria as a trip in the elevator.

First, it has to exist. The Sears Tower would have a much lower occupancy rate if it didn't have those 12 banks of elevators.

Secondly, it has to be a direct trip. If you knew your trip to the second floor would first drop by the deli across the street then hit the post office a few blocks away, you'd take the stairs. Or find a job in another building.

Finally, to be a better alternative, by definition it has to be faster and more convenient than any other alternative. Unless you're in triathalon training and/or you work in a high-rise leper colony, the elevator is going to beat the stairs on this point each of those aforementioned 99 times described above.

The Chicagos and New Yorks of America are able to meet all three of these criteria, and in these places public transportation will be a better alternative to driving to most destinations. But where public transportation is sparse or considered a magical alternative for anyone but We the Commuter to use (so we can drive to work faster), public transportation will only be a viable alternative in the most congested of corridors to the most populous of destinations. At the end of the day, public transportation has to answer the same rational question we ask ourselves everyday when we get behind the steering wheel: "What's the easiest way to get from here to there?"

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